SM says no to contractualization

SM Investments Corp., the country’s biggest mall, retail and banking group, said none of its workers was hired on a contractual basis, a practice all presidential aspirants promised to end if elected to the country’s highest public office.

SM Investments president Harley Sy said in a briefing Wednesday that SM on certain periods hired people on a “seasonal” basis, such as during the busy Christmas holidays, to augment its workforce. Its annual report given to shareholders showed it had 65,400 regular and probationary workers last year, making it one of the county’s largest employers.

“SM does not do contractualization,” Sy said on the sidelines of the company’s annual meeting Wednesday. “We do hire for seasons, like the second quarter for school openings and also for Christmas.”

“In fact we have a lot of regular employees in the company. We need a lot of good people,” Sy said. “We are easy to be used as a reference point because we happen to be one of the biggest employers in the Philippines.”

Contractualization is a hiring practice covering a short period, usually less than six months. It is also called “endo” or end of contract.

This practice allows a corporation to skirt labor laws that require regularization, which entails benefits like paid leaves, healthcare and pensions, at the company’s expense. The same workers are again hired for another period of less than six months.

Sy said seasonal hiring was required, given the SM group’s businesses that mainly cater to the country’s booming consumer economy.

“We are very service-oriented,” he said. “There are times when we need extra help.”

He said the company would nevertheless comply with any legislation passed.

“Whatever the law is, we would follow it and find ways to survive,” he said.

The company remained optimistic that its core businesses, shopping malls, property, retail and banking would continue to grow.

SM Investments was spending between P80 billion to P85 billion this year for expansion, its chief financial officer Jose Sio said on Wednesday.

Its unit SM Prime Holdings Inc. is already the country’s biggest mall developer, with 56 shopping centers in the Philippines and six in China.

SM Investments said that for 2016, SM Prime would be opening five new malls in the Philippines. It also planned to expand SM City Calamba in Laguna and SM City Naga in Bicol province.

By yearend, SM Prime would have a total of 67 malls, of which 61 are in the Philippines and six in China, with an estimated 8.6 million square meters of gross floor area.

Moreover, SM Prime also planned to launch about 11,000 to 14,000 residential units in the cities of Quezon, Bicutan, Sucat, Las Piñas and Pasay. SM Prime was also set to launch new mixed-use developments in Bulacan, Pampanga and Cavite.

The Retail Group, meanwhile, would be opening three department stores, two supermarkets, 18 Savemore branches and two hypermarkets, its annual report showed.